ABSTRACT
Two or three decades ago, virtually every state department of education in the United States and the federal government had program administrators and technical staff who were professional counselors. Their responsibility was to provide support to counseling, guidance, and testing programs as well as pupil personnel programs in local schools, often in community colleges, and sometimes in higher education. In the latter settings, these counseling specialists were concerned about the preparation and state certification of counselors and, in some cases, other members of pupil personnel teams-school psychologists, school social workers, home and school visitors, school nurses, and school psychiatrists. It is no longer true that every state department of education has a “Director of Guidance, Counseling, and Testing” (or related title) who oversees a staff of specialists who support the professional counseling function in schools and other settings. However, there are still many state departments of education that provide excellent leadership and technical support to schools and other settings in implementing, strengthening, and expanding counseling, testing, guidance, and related services. Among the finest offices of counseling support in state departments of education in the United States are those in such states as Maryland, Ohio, Georgia, California, Missouri, Minnesota, and Texas. There also are many state governments in which responsibility for certification or licensing of professional counselors, counseling psychologists, or rehabilitation counselors and specific funding for particular counseling emphases is decentralized among various departments and agencies.
